Independent Standard-Setting Boards

The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board sets high-quality international standards for auditing, assurance, and quality control that strengthen public confidence in the global profession.

The International Accounting Education Standards Board establishes standards, in the area of professional accounting education, that prescribe technical competence and professional skills, values, ethics, and attitudes.

The International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board develops standards, guidance, and resources for use by public sector entities around the world for preparation of general purpose financial statements.

Ethics

Unethical business practices harm organizations and economies. Large-scale business failures such as Enron—as well as the more recent failures related to the global financial crisis—highlight the consequences of unethical business practices and amoral management. Professional accountants, as stewards of transparency and trust, and subject to a professional code of ethics, have a key role to play not only in upholding but in encouraging and influencing ethical behavior and decision making within their organizations. Read More

Three of the public members of the IESBA (Atsushi Kato, Japan; James Gaa, Canada; and Caroline Gardner, United Kingdom) discuss their views on the pressures that today’s accountants face in terms of acting ethically and the factors influencing the development of global ethics standards in the future; excepts are from “We Are IESBA” series, which attempts to bring the work of the board to life. Read More

The IFAC SMP Committee seeks feedback in developing our response to the IESBA’s Exposure Draft, Proposed Changes to Certain Provisions of the Code Addressing the Long Association of Personnel with an Audit or Assurance Client, which is open for comment until November 12, 2014. Read More

Over time professional accountants in business, hired for their professionalism and independent judgment, may identify with their organization more than their profession, which can be a problem. Read More

Epictetus, a Greek Stoic philosopher who lived in the early second century AD, argued our capacity to reason provides the basis to recognize many ethical truths, so what would he say to the accountants of today regarding professional ethics codes? Read More